Spaced Repetition as a Tool Against Anxiety and Depression
A proposal for using SRS to recall positive memories and successes to easily remember in order to prevent negative recall bias
1. What is Spaced Repetition?
A major problem for humankind, but students especially, is that people just cannot remember things: people forget to get bread when they go shopping; they forget to run the dishwasher; they forget their anniversary; and they forget everything they learn in school before the final! Even though people want to, they can’t keep all the facts they learn in their brain because the brain chooses to discard information it doesn’t think it needs.
Some can recall an assortment of facts with which to weave into a coherent story about a process, theory or historical event, but all too often people are left with random tidbits of information like “mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell” and when pressed “What does that mean?”, they won’t know.
This is to be expected. Just as a marathon runner who takes a few years off can’t run a mile without wheezing, people can’t recall their history, math or chemistry facts unless they reinforce them. Some people actually recognize this need to practice, decide on the information they need and use a method to keep that knowledge from leaving their brain. A good technique for this is called spaced repetition. (The place to go to learn about spaced repetition is Gwern’s summary Spaced Repetition for Efficient Learning.)
In simple terms, the longer you do not recall information, the more difficult it is to recall that information until it is no longer possible and you forget. To avoid forgetting information, you can practice recalling it. Fortunately, after one recall you can take a little bit longer before reviewing. After two, you can take even longer. And so on and so on.
2. How Could It Be Used Against Depression?
A popular form of therapy is called Cognitive Behavioral Theory (CBT). The theory behind CBT is that people who are depressed and anxious spend too much time ruminating on things that are actually either not true or terribly distorted facts about reality.
If you’ve ever tried to talk to someone who was depressed or anxious, you might be surprised to hear their perspective on their source of anxiety. If they had a test coming up, they might think they were definitely going to fail, but you remember that they are a great student who never fails. If someone is depressed, you might ask them why and they say something like “I can’t do anything right.” But if you reflect on their past, you can find plenty of example of them doing things correctly and even well. CBT practitioners call these types of thoughts “cognitive distortions.”
People normally have a bias where they think of the most vivid examples that they can recall in order to think about the chance of something happening again or describe the state of the world. This is recall bias. It might be the case that anxious and depressed people don't do so well with storing and recalling positive memories. People who are depressed sometimes ruminate on the past thinking “I always fail” and anxious people worry about the future, thinking that they will fail. Sometimes, they don’t recall the positive events in the past.
My proposal is that a possible approach to anxiety and depression is to try to fill ones memory up with as many easily accessible positive memories as possible. Think you always fail? Used spaced repetition to remember all those times you actually succeeded. Think the exam will go wrong like the other time? Used spaced repetition to remember all the times it went right. Remember last time you thought this problem was the end of the world? Use spaced repetition to recall the times you overcame these struggles and your mood improved.
You can use software like Anki or Supermemo and input these positive memories as they happen. Avoid trying to recall toxic, depressive or anxiety inducing memories—your brain is already good enough at doing that. I started this recently with an example and the date in which I mustered up the courage to do something. Now, if I am having bad self image, I can remember the time I was courageous. Spaced repetition makes sure it can quickly come to mind.
I'm also an advocate of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), that is, of challenging distorted thinking by disrupting it with positive input, positive memories, positive experiences etc. as you advise. This is why I believe movies can be therapeutic, and have a "Movie Therapy" section in my newsletter. Laughter, in particular, can be a real disruptor of negative thoughts. 😊
https://moviewise.substack.com/s/movie-therapy